Political Blotter: New law relaxes rules at farmers' markets

This is a sampling from Bay Area News Group's Political Blotter blog. Read more and post comments at www.ibabuzz.com/politics.

July 8

Salud! Sláinte! Kanpai! L'Chayyim! Wine and hard cider vendors at farmers' markets can now offer tastings under certain conditions, thanks to a bill signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Brown signed AB 2488 by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, which had passed the Assembly and state Senate with unanimous votes.

The new law, effective immediately, lets wineries or cider makers who grow all of the fruit in their product to offer tastings to potential customers at farmers' markets. But nobody's going to get schnockered: Market managers still have discretion on whether to allow tastings; only one winery can offer tastes at a market on a given day; the tastings must happen in a cordoned-off area; and the grower can pour no more than 3 ounces of wine or cider per adult customer.

"The farmers' market shopping experience involves tasting the product," Levine said in a news release last month. "AB 2488 simply allows tastings at certified farmers' markets where winemakers are already allowed to sell their products. This bill is a common sense solution for farmers' markets, wineries and cider makers."

Advertisement

Paul Kronenberg, president of the Family Winemakers of California, said wine, like many other products, is traditionally "sold through sampling. Consumers want to understand the wine, decide if they like it and decide if it is a good value."

July 11

Once in a while, Congress actually gets something done. (And how sad it is to have to start a news item this way.)

House Speaker John Boehner joined with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders Friday to sign H.R. 803, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, a bipartisan jobs bill. The bill now goes to President Barack Obama to be signed into law.

"This is a very good job training and retraining bill that will help many people in America have better access to the kind of skills that are needed in today's workforce," said Boehner, R-Ohio. "What this bill does is consolidate a number of job training programs and provide flexibility at the local level.

"This is a great opportunity for us to show that we can get things done, that we can listen to the American people and work together on their behalf because their priorities, frankly, are our priorities," he added.

H.R. 803 streamlines the workforce development system by consolidating and eliminating programs, applying the same outcome standards to the remaining programs, creating smaller and more efficient state and local workforce development boards, giving states flexibility to address their own specific needs, aligning programs with economic development and education initiatives, and more.

Pelosi called the bill "a recognition that the American people are very talented. It's a recognition that the private sector stands ready to work with the workforce to provide the training."

American workers have many skills but "need specific training to be a match, to meet the needs that the speaker talked about, about those job vacancies. So this is really important in making sure we have a workforce for the 21st century -- skilled and trained to meet the needs of the private sector and the entrepreneurial spirit of America."

Rep. George Miller was at the signing too, as ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. He posted a Facebook item saying it was "great to be part of a rare bipartisan group that put together a bill to modernize job training programs to help workers get the skills that are in demand.

"Of course, Congress also needs to spend time creating jobs rebuilding America, but this training bill is a very important step that I support," added Miller, D-Martinez.